The Art of Leadership – Learning and Reflections

Written by Milla Zaenker

The morning of October 26 was beautiful, the sun was shining, and the air was crisp and clear. I was very excited to be going to the Art of Leadership conference for the first time. This is what I learned from each leader and would like to share with you:

Welby Altidor on Creativity and Collaboration

A leader’s role is to create the most fertile soil where people can grow

Successful leaders set one “beautiful and impossible” objective per quarter and strive to achieve it

Great leaders map out people’s ‘superpowers’ before engaging in a project

Don’t confuse authority and influence

To practice creative courage – face the unknown and accept that you don’t know

Seven stages to transforming our work:

Care first

Secure safety

Foster trust

Play with danger and limitations

Dream

Discover breakthrough

Grow

Vince Molinaro on Engagement and Accountability

Leadership is a decision – You must rise to new standards of behaviour, and be the role model

If you want to be liked you need to rethink what it means to be a true leader

Don’t be a bystander and wait for things to improve, do what is necessary for your organization to succeed

The culture of a company is stronger than any individual and it’s hard to change

Build a sense of community with your colleague leaders

Dr. Tasha Eurich on Self-Awareness and Performance

Understand internal and external self-awareness

Internal – seeing yourself clearly

External – knowing how others see you

Ask What, not Why: Instead of “why can’t I get along with my boss?” ask “what can I do differently to have a productive, healthy working relationship with my boss?”

Make a daily commitment to receive feedback from your “loving critics”: those who will give you honest and objective feedback, and have your best interests at heart

Ask two powerful questions:

What am I doing that makes me successful/respectful in your eyes?

What are the most annoying things that I am doing?

Don’t defend, but listen and ask questions to understand

Amanda Lang on Innovation and Change

An environment for innovation answers the questions “why” and “why not”

Something has to change for it to be innovative; otherwise, it’s a good idea that dies

How you think is who you are

When brainstorming, find people who are slightly irritating – it will lead to great ideas

Practice gratitude, share one good thing that happened to you today. If we focus on the good we won’t notice the bad

You cannot buy passion, creativity, and trust – we do it only when we are engaged

Joe Biden on Leadership

Leadership is about putting yourself in other’s shoes, thinking about what their challenges and barriers could be, sharing loses and not just successes

Surround yourself with people who are smarter then you are, use their strengths and talents.

Never confuse academic credentials with sound judgement

Leaders don’t always have all the facts, but they use good judgement, experience, and understand the risks when making a decision

Leaders attribute success to their team when things go well and own the blame for the not so successful consequences